Artists Studio: Raven Chacon

RAVEN CHACON

Artists Studio October 7– 8, 2026

WELCOME We are proud to welcome you to the tenth year of Park Avenue Armory’s Artists Studio series. Starting in 2016, the Artists Studio has been showcasing a diverse mix of some of today’s most creative voices who have a distinct relationship with improvisation and various art forms. Realized in the Veterans Room—a monument to the American Aesthetic Movement designed by Louis C. Tiffany & Co., Associated Artists—these interventions expressly mirror the innovative spirit of the exceptional young artists present at the room’s inception. The success of this series is founded on the incredible curatorial work of celebrated jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran. A longtime friend of the Armory and brilliant musician and artist in his own right, Jason has the unique ability to find artists imagining outside of the box and give them the freedom to explore across categories and artistic forms, taking their practice in exciting new directions in the Veterans Room. We are thankful for Jason and his contribution to the Artists Studio series over the past decade. This season, the Artists Studio opens with a tenth-anniversary celebration performance in January, where series curator Jason Moran gives an evening of solo performance and reflection in the very space where he inaugurated the opening of the Veterans Room after its revitalization. Percussionist and composer Jamire Williams brings his creative voice in March, developing an immersive and experimental solo percussion performance that pushes the boundaries of rhythm, texture, and memory. June brings a program by composer and performance artist Joy Guidry, who expands on her Award-winning ambient album Five Prayers by reimagining it into movements based on different themes of Black American spirituality and artistic expression ranging from jazz and minimalism to opera, ballet, blues, and gospel. In October, musician and visual artist Raven Chacon’s work connects Diné (Navajo) worldviews and relationship models with Western classical, avant-garde, and art-music traditions. Finally, director and sound artist IONE returns to the Artists Studio series following her 2016 appearance with her late partner, composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros; she closes out this milestone year with a deep listening exercise—Listening with Dreams. Through programming like the Artists Studio series, Park Avenue Armory strives to support artists to imagine and create innovative work, inspired by the unique surround of this marvelous space. We hope you find inspiration and fresh perspectives in the new, site-specific works by these thoughtful and groundbreaking artists. Rebecca Robertson Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer Deborah Warner Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director

SEASON SPONSOR

PUBLIC SUPPORT

Bloomberg Philanthropies is Park Avenue Armory’s 2026 Season Sponsor. Leadership support for the Armory’s artistic programming has been generously provided by the Anita K. Hersh Philanthropic Fund, Charina Endowment Fund, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Pinkerton Foundation, the Starr Foundation, the Thompson Family Foundation, and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels. Major support was also provided by the the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Shubert Foundation, the SHS Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and Wescustogo Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Julie Menin.

PROGRAM Artists Studio: Raven Chacon

wednesday, october 7, 2026 at 7:30pm thursday, october 8, 2026 at 7:30pm veterans room

ABOUT RAVEN CHACON Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, Chacon has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Renaissance Society, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Borealis Festival, SITE Santa Fe, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, and Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York. As a member of Postcommodity from 2009-2018, he co-created artworks presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, Carnegie International 57, as well as the 2-mile long land art installation Repellent Fence.

Since 2004, he has mentored over 300 high school Native composers in the writing of new string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). Chacon is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition, the Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award (2022), the Pew Fellow-in-Residence (2022), and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow.

A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on more than eighty releases on various national and international labels. In 2022, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition Voiceless Mass. His 2020 Manifest Destiny opera Sweet Land, co-composed with Du Yun, received critical acclaim from The LA Times, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and was named 2021 Opera of the Year by the Music Critics Association of North America.

His solo artworks are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and National Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and various private collections.

PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Stephen Cooper Audio Engineer Martin D. Fowler Studio Manager, The Studio of Raven Chacon

Raven Chacon is represented by Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, New York City.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS STUDIO Launched in March 2016 alongside the inauguration of the revitalized Veterans Room, the Artists Studio serves as a space for artists to experiment, collaborate, create, and push the boundaries of their craft. Previous Artists Studio programs have featured performances by: jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran; Dutch contemporary composer Louis Andriessen and pianist Jason Moran; American composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros and noted author, director, and dream specialist IONE; pianist and composer Conrad Tao and multifaceted percussionist, instrumentalist, and composer Tyshawn Sorey; seminal drummer and acupuncturist Milford Graves and drummer and musician Deantoni Parks; artist Lucy Raven; groundbreaking sound designer Ryan Trecartin with his primary collaborator Lizzie Fitch, music producer and DJ Ashland Mines (aka Total Freedom), and composer/producer Aaron David Ross; acoustic ensemble Dawn of Midi; composer Ryuichi Sakamoto; tenor Lawrence Brownlee with pianists Myra Huang and Jason Moran; multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome; vocalist Dominique Eade and pianist Ran Blake with composer Kavita Shah; experimental composer Alvin Curran; internationally renowned composer, saxophonist, sound experimentalist, and mixed-media practitioner Matana Roberts; pioneer of experimental music Charlemagne Palestine; art icon and DJ Juliana Huxtable; composer and saxophonist Roscoe

Mitchell; experimental composer, improviser, and performer Miya Masaoka; My Barbarian collective founders Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade; cutting edge visual artist Rosa Barba; Dominican accordionist Krency Garcia (El Prodigio); the late trumpeter jaimie branch and visual artist Carol Szymanski; pioneer of performance and video art Joan Jonas; conceptual artist, writer, and performer Rodney McMillian; a full season residency by the revolutionary collective the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Inc. (AACM), featuring Pulizter Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, drummer and percussionist Thurman Barker, musical partners Adegoke Steve Colson and Iqua Colson, scholar and composer George Lewis, composer and percussionist Reggie Nicholson, and multidimensional artist and creator Amina Claudine Myers; artist and musician Jasper Marsalis; American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother with free jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements (IE); performance artist EJ Hill; filmmaker, writer, curator, and founder of the BlackStar Film Festival Maori Karmael Holmes; curator and composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe; Swedish experimental vocalist Sofia Jernberg; solo performer and drummer Guillermo E. Brown; and Norwegian artist and musician Sandra Mujinga.

NEXT IN THE SERIES IONE OCTOBER 20 & 21

An author, playwright, director, and dream specialist, IONE is also a noted sound artist who with her late partner Pauline Oliveros redefined the boundaries of music making in the development of experimental and electronic art music. She returns to the Veterans Room following Oliveros’s passing in 2017 to present a condensed version of The Nubian Word for Flowers, an interactive, semi-improvised opera imagining and interpreting the visions and dreams of those responsible for the colonial transformations and destructions of Nubia from the past, the present, and a speculative future. In performance with her original collaborators from 2017, IONE brings the “Pocket Edition” of The Nubian Word for Flowers back to the site of Pauline Oliveros’ Memorial Event: the Armory’s Veterans Room.

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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

NEXT AT THE ARMORY MUSIC FOR 18 MUSICIANS: STAGED VARIATIONS OCTOBER 14 – 18

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its premiere and the 90th birthday of composer Steve Reich, this masterpiece is staged in a durational cycle by enveloping audiences to reveal the intricate structure of the composition, performed by three generations of musicians including the Steve Reich Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound under the baton of Alan Pierson with connective interludes by special guests to hear the iconic composition anew and from within.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE A PARK AVENUE ARMORY COMMISSION BALKAN EROTIC EPIC DECEMBER 8 – 20

Visionary performance artist Marina Abramović returns to the Armory to realize her largest-scale performance work to date, combining dance, song, and ritual to experience dramatic adaptations of Balkan mythology and folklore enacted by a cast of 50 performers. The durational work merges traditional elements of performance with sensuality and eroticism, removing modern taboos to reclaim the body as a site of power, mystery, and transformation.

RECITAL SERIES BEN BLISS & CHRISTOPHER ALLEN OCTOBER 9 & 11

Master Mozartean Ben Bliss has conquered stages from the Metropolitan Opera to Vienna, Barcelona, and Paris—not to mention being the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Beverly Sills Award as well as other accolades. He comes to the Board of Officers Room to showcase his honeyed, lyric voice and warm, luminous timbre in an intimate evening of arias and art songs.

DEEPA JOHNNY & JONATHAN WARE NOVEMBER 19 & 21 NORTH AMERICAN RECITAL DEBUT

Expect to witness the undeniable stage presence, velvety bravado, and expressive palette of Omani-born mezzo soprano Deepa Johnny when she makes her North American recital debut in the Board of Officers Room with a thoughtful program of arias and art songs from composers from around the globe that beautifully showcase her gorgeous rich tones and flawless musicality.

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ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York. The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders

around the important issues of our time; and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to the Armory and its history. In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artists-in-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices. The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical post-high school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals. The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Emeritus Elihu Rose, PhD Co-Chairs Adam R. Flatto Amanda J.T. Riegel President Rebecca Robertson Vice Presidents David Fox Pablo Legorreta Emanuel Stern

Marina Abramović Abigail Baratta Joyce F. Brown Cora Cahan Hélène Comfort Paul Cronson Tina R. Davis Jessie Ding Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Roberta Garza Kim Greenberg Samhita Jayanti Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Edward G. Klein, Brigadier General NYNG (Ret.) Ralph Lemon Jason Moran Emmanuel Morlet Janet C. Ross Stephanie Sharp Joan Steinberg Dabie Tsai Ku-Ling Yurman Ying Zhou

Avant-Garde Chair Adrienne Katz Directors Emeriti Harrison M. Bains Angela E. Thompson* Wade F.B. Thompson* Founding Chairman, 2000-2009 Deborah Warner Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director

*In memoriam Treasurer Emanuel Stern

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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

ABOUT THE VETERANS ROOM “In a sense, the Veterans Room, of all the Armory’s opulent reception rooms, has the deepest spiritual kinship with a work of contemporary art.” —The New York Times The Veterans Room is among the most significant surviving interiors of the American Aesthetic Movement, and the most significant remaining intact interior in the world by Louis C. Tiffany and Co., Associated Artists. The newly formed collective led by Tiffany included some of the most significant American designers of the 19th century at early stages of their very distinguished careers: Stanford White, Samuel Colman, and Candace Wheeler among them. The design of the room by these artists was exotic, eclectic, and full of experimentation, as noted by Decorator and Furnisher in 1885 that “the prepondering styles appear to be the Greek, Moresque, and Celtic, with a dash of Egyptian, the Persian, and the Japanese in the appropriate places.” A monument of late 19th-century decorative arts, the Veterans Room is the fourth period room at the Armory completed (out of 18). The revitalization of the room responds to the original exuberant vision for the room’s design, bringing into dialogue some of the most talented designers of the 19th and 21st centuries – Associated Artists with Herzog & de Meuron, Platt Byrd Dovell

White Architects, and a team of world-renowned artisans and experts in Tiffany glass, fine woodworking, and decorative arts. The revitalization of the Veterans Room follows Herzog & de Meuron’s design approach for the Armory building, which seeks to highlight the distinct qualities and existing character of each individual room while interweaving contemporary elements to improve its function. Even more so than in other rooms at the Armory, Herzog & de Meuron’s approach to the Veterans Room is to amplify the beauty of the room’s original vision through adding contemporary reconstructions of lost historic materials and subtle additions with the same ethos and creative passion as the original artisans to infuse a modern energy into a harmonious, holistic design. The room’s restoration is part of an ongoing $215-million transformation, which is guided by the understanding that the Armory’s rich history and the patina of time are essential to its character, with a design process for the period rooms that emphasizes close collaboration between architect and artisan.

The restoration and renovation of the Veterans Room was made possible by The Thopson Family Foundation, Inc., Susan and Elihu Rose, Charina Endowment Fund, Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz, Almudena and Pablo Legorreta, Assemblymember Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly, Emanuel Stern, Adam R. Flatto, Olivia Tournay Flatto, Kenneth S. Kuchin, R. Mark and Wendy Adams, American Express, Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief, Amy and Jeffrey Silverman, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Anonymous (2).

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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065